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ECB board selection process is too restrictive
In a letter published this week, Prof Francesco Giavazzi and Prof Charles Wyplosz said the selection process for ECB board members is seriously inadequate. According to them, members should be chosen solely on their own merits, irrespective of the…
Greenspan the economic detective
Receiving his honorary degree in Edinburgh on Monday 7 February, Alan Greenspan said that as an economic detective he has long found inspiration in the wisdom of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
San Francisco Fed's Bretton Woods conference
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco held a conference "Revived Bretton Woods System: A new paradigm for Asian development" on 4 February. Papers presented included Barry Eichengreen's "Global imbalances and the lessons of Bretton Woods".
Zambia withdraws fading plastic bank notes
Zambia's central bank told commercial banks and financial institutions on Wednesday to withdraw from circulation plastic bank notes printed in 2003 because they are fading.
Bank of Spain to implement business process system
TIBCO Software Inc. announced Thursday that the Central Bank of Spain, Banco de Espana, has chosen TIBCO to serve as its core provider for the automation of its business processes.
Issing: Asset price rises can harm price stability
The chief economist at the European Central Bank, Otmar Issing, warned in a column on Thursday that a bubble in asset prices could pose risks to overall price stability.
Bank Negara's reserves reach new high
Bank Negara Malaysia's foreign reserves reached a new high of RM264.66 billion (US$69.64 million) in the second half of January, due partly to larger inflow of portfolio funds.
Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves increase
Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves totalled US$242.7 billion at the end of January, up US$1 billion from a month earlier, according to the latest statistics released by the Central Bank of China (CBC).
Treasury papers reveal Black Wednesday losses
UK Treasury papers released on Wednesday showed that the cost of intervention in the currency market during the period before Britain's "Black Wednesday" exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 were £3.3bn, according to the Treasury's estimates in…
ECB Monthly Bulletin, February 2005
The European Central Bank published its February 2005 Monthly Bulletin on Thursday saying recent data on economic activity suggest ongoing moderate growth in the fourth quarter of 2004 and a broadly unchanged situation around the new year.
Eurosystem and Mediterranean central banks seminar
The second Euro-Mediterranean seminar, which brings together Eurosystem and Mediterranean central banks, was jointly organised by the Banque de France and the European Central Bank (ECB) and held in Cannes on 8 and 9 February 2005.
Cost of UK's fight to stay in ERM
Britain's Treasury has released internal papers giving various estimates of the cost of intervention before and during "Black Wednesday" in 1992
Roubini and Setser predict end of Bretton Woods 2
Nouriel Roubini and Brad Setser have released a new paper prophesising the end of the so-called "Bretton Woods 2" system within the next two years.
Flexibility in liquidity target says BOJ's Suda
Speaking on Wednesday Bank of Japan Policy Board member Miyako Suda said the central bank may need to be more flexible regarding its liquidity target when cash demand is low in the market.
EU's Juncker supports US comments on deficit
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said in a television interview Wednesday that U.S. pledges to reduce its budget deficit are a step in the right direction.
ECB's Liebscher says rates need not increase
European Central Bank council member Klaus Liebscher said in an interview he sees no reason to increase interest rates as a "weak" labour market helps bring down inflation.
IMF analysing options on gold
The International Monetary Fund is currently preparing a report on the possibility of selling or revaluing a portion of its gold reserves and the IMF staff analysis of the options will be eagerly awaited.
Atlanta Fed's Guynn says FOMC language may change
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Jack Guynn said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the bank may soon need to remove the word "measured" from its policy statement regarding interest-rate increases.
Spain's Caruana on Basel II: back to the future
In the speech 'Basel II: back to the future' given on 4 February Jaime Caruana of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and Bank of Spain highlights the anticipatory and forward-looking elements of Basel II. The real value of Basel II, he says, will…
IMF's Carstens on transparency and accountability
In the speech 'The role of transparency and accountability for economic development in resource-rich countries' given on 27 January Agustin Carstens of the IMF said transparency and accountability in resource-rich countries are critical for ensuring that…
Paper on optimal central bank independence
This Working Paper from Vanderbilt University formulates the problem of monetary policy delegation as a two-stage non-cooperative game between the government and the central bank.
Inflation differentials among euro area countries
In a paper presented at the joint American Economic Association session 'The Theory of Optimum Currency Areas Revisited' Hermann Remsperger of the Deutsche Bundesbank reviews the development, potential causes and macroeconomic implications of inflation…
Fed's increase is case of perfect transparency
The FOMC's recent action to raise interest rates had been fully anticipated with not a single point move on the yield curve, from two years to 10 years. This article describes the move as a case of perfect transparency.
Takenaka calls for money supply increase
Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said the Bank of Japan and the government should work together to increase money supply growth to end more than six years of deflation.